Time travel tantalises. It’s been a mainstay of sci fi since the early days, when H.G. Wells invented the idea of a time machine, and it still fascinates, as the success of Nordic crime drama proves. Can we go back to change our past – or the fate of the world? How would we cope if we found ourselves arriving in the past, or the future?
If the idea of an adventure in time fascinates, these documentaries, series and movies are just what you need.
James Cameron's The Story of Science Fiction: Time Travel
The opening minutes of this wide-ranging documentary make it clear just how fascinated we are with time travel, showing some of the many popular movies and television series that have featured the idea, from Doctor Who to The Time Traveller's Wife. And it doesn't get much better for those of us fascinated by the idea than to see the creative force responsible for Terminator, James Cameron, ask the executive producer of the Back to the Future series, Steven Spielberg, if he believes time travel is possible - and have him answer "well, I asked Stephen Hawking that...". This special, one of the six-part collection that examines sci-fi themes such as aliens, space and dark futures, looks at how, since. H.G. Wells penned The Time Machine, writers and filmmakers have explored the possibilities, pitfalls, and paradoxes of time travel. Are there multiple futures? Can we change our fate? Other guests delving into the topic include Peter Capaldi, Christopher Nolan, Keanu Reeves and Christopher Lloyd.
James Cameron's The Story of Science Fiction: Time Travel screened Tuesday 12 July on SBS VICELAND is now available at SBS On Demand. Other parts of the series are also streaming . Start with part 1, Alien Life:
Wonderland
Set in Paris, this French language series tells a story of a man who finds a door to the past. Jeremy (Pierre Deladonchamps) is 33 years old - but he's never felt like he belonged to his own generation. One night, he discovers The Wonderland, a club with live music where people come to sing and dance, run by a charismatic manager named Tony. Jeremy tries out his luck and becomes a bartender there. The history of The Wonderland covers its walls, in dozens of photos. Jeremy is mesmerised by one photo in particular, of a woman on a beach, a photo taken in Biarritz in 1960. The Wonderland will serve as a door to Jeremy, a passage between Paris in 2019 and Biarritz in the 1960s. The series tells the story of the coming together of two people who never should have met. A passionate love story that twists the hands of fate and changes lives. A trip through time, both terrifying and wonderful.
Beforeigners
Beforeigners is a Norwegian crime series with an intriguing twist: what would happen if people from the past suddenly appeared here and now? Across the world, flashes of light start appearing in the oceans and harbours; panicked people from three eras in the past – the Stone Age, the Viking era and the late 1800s – suddenly appear in the water. No-one knows why or how this is happening, and the ‘beforeigners’ have no memory of how they got here. Years later, with the appearances continuing but scientists no wiser as to why, burned-out Oslo police officer Lars Haaland (Norwegian actor Nicolai Cleve Broch, Acquitted) is paired with Alfhildr Enginsdottir (Krista Kosonen, Blade Runner 2049), a woman originally from the Viking Age, to investigate the murder of a woman with Stone Age tattoos. Beforeigners is part crime show, part sci-fi, with a dash of comedy. The second season of this intriguing series takes time-crime nexus a step further, and asks, what if Jack the Ripper travelled through time?
Timecop
A classic in the time-travel genre, this movie sees Jean-Claude Van Damme as the titular time cop, heading back through the years in an attempt to stop a corrupt senator who has acquited the power to change history.
Timecop is streaming now at SBS On Demand:
La Belle Époque
Victor, a disillusioned sexagenarian, sees his life turned upside down on the day when Antoine, a brilliant entrepreneur, offers him a new kind of attraction: mixing theatrical artifices and historical reconstruction, this company offers his clients a chance to dive back into the era of their choice. Victor then chose to relive the most memorable week of his life: the one where, 40 years earlier, he met the great love of his life. This isn't time travel, as such - but as events unfold Victor (Daniel Auteuil) becomes lost in the reonstruction of the past.
La Belle Époque is streaming now at SBS On Demand:
There are more time travel stories waiting at SBS On Demand - but we'd spoil the storyline if we told you about those. There's also , which despite the name is not about travelling time as such but rather a film about Chinese artist Maleonn who, shaken by the news of his father's dementia, creates “Papa’s Time Machine,” a magical, autobiographical stage performance.
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